H. P. Lovecraft Turns 125 Today

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One of the greatest writers of weird fiction, some would the greatest, was born on August 20th, 1890. I am, of course, talking about H. P. Lovecraft. It’s also my mother-in-law’s birthday (Hi, June.), but we won’t go there. It’s just coincidence.

There will be a number of tributes posted today. I’m going to take a slightly different approach here. I first encountered Lovecraft in an anthology I read in the seventh grade. The story was “The Doom That Came to Sarnath.”* I never really took an interest in the Mythos stories in my teens and twenties. Only in my thirties and forties did I start delving into the stories Lovecraft is most known for.

I’ve had conversations with more than one person in which they said as they’ve grown older, they find Lovecraft more and more unreadable. In general, they are talking about his prose.

Curiously, I find the opposite. Maybe I’m reading different stories. There are a number of major stories I haven’t read yet, but I don’t have a problem with Lovecraft’s prose most of the time. It’s an old fashioned style, much more lush that what is standard today. Maybe I read too much Dickens in school or something, but I don’t have a huge problem with it. I appreciate his work more with each new story of his I read. Continue reading →

Congratulations to the Gemmell Award Winners

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The winners of the 2015 David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy were announced last weekend. The winners are:

RAVENHEART AWARD (Best cover art) Sam Green for Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

MORNINGSTAR AWARD (Best debut) The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Stavely (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)

LEGEND AWARD (Best novel) Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

Adventures Fantastic would like to offer heartiest congratulations the winners.

Visiting The House of Shattered Wings

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The House of Shattered Wings
Aliette de Bodard
Roc Books
Hardcover $26.95
ebook $11.43

One of the nice things about receiving review copies is that I often end up reading things I wouldn’t otherwise read but find that I enjoy. Case in point, Aliette de Bodard’s new novel that was released in the US today, The House of Shattered Wings. (I’d like to very much thank Roc Books for the review copy.)

I’ve read some of de Bodard’s short fiction. I’d found it a bit slow moving for my taste, and so I was a little hesitant about reading this novel. (I’ve not read her earlier novels.) In addition, the premise of fallen angels isn’t one that holds much appeal for me. But I decided I would give it an honest try.

I’m glad I did. While I did find the pacing to be somewhat slow at times, especially in the first half of the book, overall I enjoyed the novel. Here’s the setup. Continue reading →

Guest Post: Discovering Lovecraft by Paul McNamee

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Keith here. What follows is a guest post by Paul McNamee. Normally I wouldn’t intrude but I wanted to include a link to Paul’s blog. Now here’s Paul.

(First, thanks to Keith for the guest spot on Adventures Fantastic.

I am here promoting the new anthology, A LONELY & CURIOUS COUNTRY: Tales from the Lands of Lovecraft. The book is currently available in print from Amazon, and we all hope an ebook is soon to follow.)

Honestly, I don’t remember exactly when or which Lovecraft book I read first. It was the “old days,” the latter half of the 1980s. I was in college. I was interested in horror – mostly by way of Stephen King. And I still had an interest in fantasy – mostly by way of J.R.R. Tolkien.

There was no world wide web. In those days, I never knew what books were coming out. I would wander – mostly in the scifi/fantasy section of the bookstore. I would grab what jumped off the shelf at me.

The Del Rey editions of Lovecraft’s work were appearing on the shelves. The Michael Whelan art certainly caught my eye.

I believe it was THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH first. It collected tales that were more dark fantasy. But there was enough horror there to pique my interest in that vein, too.

I probably read another volume, possibly THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH. Again, it was slanted more toward the fantastic but contained horror tales as well.

But shortly thereafter, I read THE LURKING FEAR.
Continue reading →

Why Did the Chicken Footed House Cross the Road?

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When Chicken Feet Cross the Highway
Alma T. C. Boykin
ebook only $0.99

The title of this post may sound like a joke, but when Alexander Zolnerovich saw the house with chicken feet cross the interstate while he was stuck in a Denver traffic jam, he didn’t find anything funny about it.

The poor guy, an Army sergeant, is on his way to visit his grandmother in Colorado. He’s not looking to tangle with one of the worst characters from Russian folklore. But when he gets to his grandmother’s house and finds it deserted, he realizes he doesn’t have much choice.

I found this to be an entertaining short story. Boykin knows Russian folklore, and it shows in the story’s structure. I don’t know much Russian folklore myself, but I know enough to follow most of the references here.

A modern, and less capable writer, would have a soldier come storming in, guns blazing, to rescue to the old woman. Not so here. Alex takes his time, listens to his grandmother’s cat (Ivan the Purrable), uses his wits, and basically enters a Russian folktale, where he ends up doing chores for Baba Yaga. Only he doesn’t do them exactly as he’s told. This was in many ways the most enjoyable part of the story. In many folktales and fairy tales, the flow of time isn’t…I guess you could say isn’t linear. Simple tasks take hours. Events that should take great amounts of time pass quickly. Something like that happens in the second part of the story. It added a deliciously weird tone to things.

This is the first work by Boykin that I’ve read. She has a number of books out, and based on internal clues, I suspect this isn’t the first tale of Alex Zolnerovich.

Oh, and to answer to the question, why did the chicken footed house cross the road? You’ll have to read the story to find out.

Dark Screams Vol. 4 Available Today

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Dark Screams Vol. 4
Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar, ed.
Hydra, a Division of Random House
ebook only, $2.99

I’d like once again to thank Brian James Freeman for putting me on his list of reviewers for eARCs of the Dark Screams series. These quarterly anthologies are turning out to be among the most consistent and enjoyable anthology series on the market.

Each volume contains five different stories by five different authors. The contents vary in style and theme, as well as subgenre of horror. They are a great way to sample new authors without shelling out the cash for an entire book or to simplyl enjoy a new story by an old favorite. And at $2.99 each, Dark Screams is one of the best values on the horror market.

Here’s what the current volume contains: Continue reading →

Computer Hiatus

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Last weekend my computer at home started to refuse to boot completely, and if it did, it ran incredibly slowly. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s lasted as long as it has. I’ve had it for at least 12 years, and the OP is so old that it won’t support the latest versions of some major software packages, such as JAVA. I was hoping it would hold out until Christmas. Ah, well. It’s been one of those weeks.

Anyway, I’ll be getting a new computer sometime in the next week (I hope), but I’m not going to rush out and buy any old thing. My wife and I will discuss what will best suit our needs and shop carefully. In addition to the computer, I’m going to have to replace a window in my car, plus I’ve had AC work done in the last week, so cash flow isn’t exactly what I expected it would be. I may wait a week or two and see if I can find a good back to school sale.

What this means is I won’t be blogging much until the new computer is in place. It’s too tedious to try to type much in from my phone. The summer term ends this week, with my final exam scheduled for Thursday, so having a few free minutes at work isn’t likely. As a result, things might be a bit quite around here for a little while.

John C. Wright Channels Narnia

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One Bright Star to Guide Them
John C. Wright
Castalia House
ebook $2.99

I’ve not read all of the Narnia books (I’m sorry! I will correct this defect in my reading ASAP.) I have read enough of them to see the influence of the Narnia books in this novella by John C. Wright.

What we have here isn’t a pastiche. You won’t find Peter or Lucy or Aslan or any of the other characters from C. S. Lewis’ classic fantasy in these pages. But their presence permeates the book.

Tommy is a single middle aged man. He’s just been given a promotion, and after celebrating a little too much that night, he drops his keys into the rose bush beside his steps while trying to unlock the door. After fumbling for them in the dark, he looks at the statue of St. George in the churchyard across the street to help him find “the key that I have lost”. What he pulls out of the bush is a black cat with a silver key about it’s neck. Continue reading →

The Traitor’s Blade Cuts Deep

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Traitor’s Blade
Sebastien de Castell
Hachette
Paperback $14.99
Ebook $9.99

Traitor’s Blade is the first volume of Sebastien de Castell’s new grimdark fantasy series. His first novel, it’s a smashing debut. I can understand why it was shortlisted for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best first fantasy novel. It’s the one I’m pulling for.

Here’s the setup. Falcio Val Mond grew up dreaming of the legendary Greatcoats and being a hero. If you look up “idealist” in the dictionary, his picture would be there. But the Greatcoats were disbanded decades ago.

Then a combination tragedy and a new king lead to Falcio becoming the first of the new Greatcoats. This king wants to reign in the excesses of the Dukes. If you look up the word “evil” in the dictionary, their pictures will be there. (When I called this novel a grimdark fantasy, I wasn’t kidding.) The Dukes rebel. The King’s last command is for the Greatcoats to stand down and not resist the rebellion. They just need to find the king’s Charoites. He calls them a type of jewel, but that’s all he’ll say. Finding them will not be easy when Falcio has no idea where to start looking or even what they are.

The novel opens five years after the king’s death. Falcio and two of his companions from the now disgraced Greatcoats are bodyguards for a major caravan master when he is murdered and they are framed for the murder. For some reason, the city guard don’t believe a naked woman killed the man in such a brutal manner. Continue reading →

Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Start Conan Read Through

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If you aren’t reading Howard Andrew Jones’ blog, then you’ve been missing some good posts. He and Bill Ward have been reading through works by major fantasy authors for about a year now and discussing them. They started with a couple of collections by Lord Dunsany and then moved on to Swords Against Darkness and Swords in the Mist, two Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser collections by Fritz Leiber. Each week they’ve discussed the story they’ve read and invited anyone interested in doing so to read along with them.

Today Howard posted a wrap-up of Swords in the Mist and a discussion of their next project. This will be The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. Today’s post was mostly about Conan, not so much about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Next week they discuss Howard’s essay “The Hyborian Age” before launching into the stories themselves.

If you’re a Howard fan, or just a Conan fan, you should check it out.